GB
1939
1hr 28mins
Dir: Anthony Kimmins
Starring: George Formby and Patricia Kirkwood
A humble stable boy soothes a troublesome racehorse and rides it victory
This typical Formby farce features a railway journey that involves Formby walking on the roof of a train in motion and then having to duck for cover when it reaches a tunnel. A comedy scene precedes this, filmed at ‘Longford’ station, and although vintage LNER D3 Class 4-4-0 No.4309 is prominent at the head of an arriving train it is not known which station this really was. The roof-walking scene is a combination of actual footage using a stuntman, and film of Formby on a roof mock-up in a studio with back projection. Locations are unknown, but the stunt scenes use LNER coaches and the Hertford Loop was popular for filming at the time. There are a number of other railway scenes in the film, namely; a stock shot of an express in the Lune Gorge hauled by a relative rarity on film in the form of an ex-L&YR Class 8 4-6-0 ‘Lanky Dreadnought’, and a scene with a horsebox being unloaded at a cattle dock of another unknown station, the fictional Avonbury Goods Yard. In the background of this scene an even rarer loco in the form of an LNER N5 Class 0-6-2T is shunting in the background. Finally, there is a bit of camera trickery as George jumps the gap of a partly constructed bridge in his car. Beneath is a four track main line, and although the location of the bridge is not recorded, it is likely to be the Home Counties end of the East Coast mainline.
